Edna was born August 28,1929 in Tel-Aviv to Yisrael and Atara,  among the first settlers in the Sharon area, later to  become Ra’anana. The family was a fighting nationalistic family with nine brothers and sisters. Yisrael was quite outspoken about his political opinions, and thus aroused the contempt of many of his area’s people.  Edna studied in a school in Ramatayim, whose principal was Matityahu Gahatiya ( whose Lehi nom-de-guerre was Beit-Halachmi). Yardeni was active in Lehi’s Supporters’ Recruitment and in finding refuge for members sought after by British Authorities. He installed a bunker in his house for hiding people when necessary. Concealed weapons storage areas were installed in his house and farm. The children were brought up in a Nationalistic atmosphere, taught from a very young age to  do surveillance, sounding the alert regarding police officers approaching the house, doing special errands etc. Edna, despite her young age, assisted to the best of her ability, as instructed by her parents or Lehi persons, residing in their house, and  other houses, where Yardeni had placed them. Among these fellows were Latrun and prison escapees, and others. She helped her mother prepare paste and left for pasting-up info-bulletins and circulating info-materials. She underwent weapons training in an orchard near Kfar-Sava and was involved in cleaning and securing weapons in their hideaways. After finishing her studies at Ramatayim elementary school she studied at ‘Echad-Ha’am School’ Petach-Tikva. Afterwards she qualified as a teacher at Levinsky Teachers Seminary Tel-Aviv. She  served in the IDF and received the ‘Aleh’ Decoration. Edna married Yitzhak Ben-Arieh in 1955, and the couple had two daughters and three grandchildren. Yitzhak passed away 1978.

Edna studied painting at ‘Avni’ Studio Tel-Aviv. She underwent further Teaching courses and became a Senior Teacher. She taught at the Weizman School in Herzliya, until moving to Haifa. There she taught at the Carmel ‘Ehud’ School and  ‘David Yalin’ School. She also taught agriculture at a Kiryat-Bialik farm estate. Now retired, Edna works with new immigrants, and teaches Hebrew to female police officers in Shfar’am.